Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 25768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
“Hungry?” he asked. “I have bagels.” He gestured to the counter where a bag of varied flavors sat. “Butter and cream cheese are in the fridge.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
She walked past him and set about choosing her bagel, a cinnamon raisin, and taking a tub of cream cheese from the refrigerator. “Want one?”
“I already ate.”
She shrugged. Making herself at home wasn’t easy but she did her best, toasting and making her bagel, pouring a cup of coffee from the pot that he’d already made, and sitting down at the small kitchen table with him leaning against the counter, watching her the entire time. He was respectful, keeping his gaze off her chest but she noticed him taking in her tanned legs and she thought she heard a hum of approval before he cleared his throat and glanced out the window.
“So your house is being renovated?” she asked as she took a bite of her bagel.
He cocked an eyebrow at her interest. “Yeah.”
“I like it here. It’s cozy. I mean, except for the lack of pictures and…feminine touches.” Yes, she was hinting for an answer as to whether he had a girlfriend.
He frowned in confusion. “Why the hell would I have feminine touches?”
She shrugged. “Your girlfriend likes the sparse décor?” Yes, she was curious and digging for information. He might be a touch grumpy, but she couldn’t deny the hotness factor. Nobody in her world looked like him.
“I don’t have a girlfriend.”
She grinned. “Interesting.” And good to know.
He exhaled an exasperated breath and ran a hand through his sexy, somewhat long hair. “Look, can you just finish up so I can take you to the bar to get your car and you can go home?”
She was obviously irritating him, but for some reason she liked getting under his skin. He might not want her here but from the way he’d looked at her, he wasn’t immune.
“I’m not going home. Not while my parents are giving the asshole access to the house and by default, to me.”
His sigh told her he understood but his next words were, “Well you can’t stay here,” he said gruffly.
She slowly put the bagel onto the plate, considering her options. All the hotels, motels, and rentals would be booked for the summer. Her friends’ parents wouldn’t take her in out of loyalty to her mother and father, who would never believe her if she’d told them what Preston had done. People in their circle closed ranks. She knew she’d find herself on the outside, with their friends helping her parents to push her to return home.
She truly had no other options, which meant she would have to play on his sympathy and hope his kindness and hospitality continued. Okay, kindness might be stretching how he’d treated her but he had brought her here, given her a room, clean clothing and breakfast. He might be grumpy but he hadn’t turned her away. Until now.
“Look, I realize we don’t know each other but you do have an extra room. The one I slept in last night.” She’d never been so pushy but she really needed more time to figure out her life.
He shook his head. “It’s about to become a study.”
“But for now there’s still a bed.” She batted her eyelashes in a futile attempt to flirt but she’d never been any good at it.
He studied her, those chocolate brown eyes taking her in. He was good at hiding his emotions. She’d just have to be better at breaking through his walls.
* * * *
Maddox stared at his too-innocent looking guest and groaned. She gave off a guileless appearance but Gabby knew just how to work him to get what she wanted. He doubted she was evil or manipulative like many women he’d been unlucky enough to meet. Just young and desperate, which had her chipping holes in his defenses. Not that he’d show her as much.
She was adorably cute and extremely sexy in his overly long T-shirt. He wasn’t used to women wearing his clothing and seeing her in his thin tee did something for him. Her legs were lean, tanned, and he could imagine them wrapped around his waist as he backed her into a wall, kissed her hard and slid his hand beneath the hem of that shirt, stroking her wet sex to make her come. Those were the reasons he fought so hard against her staying. He could not allow himself to get involved with her. She was too young, which could mean too flighty.
But there was something about the innocence he sensed that called to him. No other woman he’d been with, especially not Felicia, who he’d dated for six months and thought he’d been falling for, had this appealing, wholesome side to her.
Felicia had been elegant and looked perfect on his arm at any event they attended, but she lacked the genuine warmth Gabby possessed. And at the very mention of him possibly resigning his job at the investment firm, she’d lost her mind, yelling, shouting, and threatening to break up with him, and that was before he’d revealed his intention to leave the rat race and move here.